Every year millions of medical patients around the world acquire infections during their hospitalization. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognize lack of hand hygiene amongst healthcare workers as the primary cause of hospital-acquired infections. As a result of this, medical facilities around the world attempt to measure the hand hygiene compliance of their staff. Other industries such as the food, education and transportation sectors also attempt to measure hygiene dispenser usage.
Most industries currently measure hand hygiene through inaccurate means. Such convention means include volumetric consumption over time or manual observation. The conventional techniques and devices all have drawbacks: some operate only with specific dispenser models, others require gross modifications in user workflow, others are highly inaccurate, while others provide no means for identifying the user responsible for dispenser use. While some electronic methods exist to attribute dispenser usage to individuals, these methods often rely on limited information such as relying solely on the proximity of a badge to determine attribution, leading to reduced accuracy. The compliance problems are further complicated by the many different soap and sanitizer dispenser models available on the market, none of which have the capability of providing true compliance with regulations. Accordingly, a need remains for improved methods, systems, and devices to monitor any type of dispenser use and accurately attribute usage to individuals, in order to increase hand hygiene and reduce hospital-acquired infections. Embodiments of the inventive concept address these and other limitations in the prior art.
The foregoing and other features of the inventive concept will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.